“Ana Paula Segurola Pita started her harpsichord studies with Eduardo Gilardoni (scholarship of the Mercedes Olivera Foundation, 1990-91), and has since then attended master-classes with renowned harpsichordists like Jacques Ogg, José Luis González Uriol, Mario Videla, Edmundo Hora, Alessandro Santoro and Françoise Lengellé among others, and with musicologists like Bruno Turner and Kelley Harness.

She studied with Edmundo Hora at the State University of Campinas and with professor Ilton Wjuniski and his assistant Maria Eugênia Sacco at the Magda Tagliaferro Foundation in São Paulo.

Former piano student of Raquel Boldorini, she took lessons with Eliane Richepin (Annecy, France, 1997), and attended master-classes with foreign pianists performing in Montevideo, between 1991 and 2000.

At present, she studies Organ as a disciple of Cristina García Banegas at the University in Uruguay. ..”

"Susanne Pumhösl lives in Vienna, where she works as a freelance musician and teaches at Konservatorium Wien University. She began her career as a soloist in 1996, after taking first place at the International Johann Heinrich Schmelzer Competition at Melk Monastery with the virtuoso baroque aria “Vo far Guerra” from G.F. Handel’s opera “Rinaldo”.
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Her solo and chamber music activities—with the ensembles Capella Leopoldina and Private musicke—have been documented in numerous CD and radio recordings and have received several awards. ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

" I am a Brisbane harpsichordist with 10 years experience of performing professionally. I studied with Huguette Brassine at the Queensland Conservatorium and have received lessons from Christophe Rousset (musical director of the movie Farinelli), Geoffrey Lancaster, Colin Tilney, Peter Hagan, Alison Crum and Roy Marks, Tommie Andersson (on vihuela), and Michael O'Loghlin (continuo). I co-founded, with Gregory Rogers, the series "Theatre of Craft and Harmony", which involved period performance of all eras. This was a free monthly series and included music, dance, various demonstrations and talks.

I have performed in 4MBS Festival of Classics and broadcast on 4MBS Classic fM, and performed as a soloist and with various ensembles including New Holland Baroque, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Chamber Ensemble Queensland, Conservatorium Baroque Orchestra, the Brisbane Baroque Orchestra, Appassionata, and the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra (Queensland). " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

"French pianist Claire Chevallier (°1969) combined the study of the piano at the musical academies of Nancy, Strasbourg (Hélène Boschi) and Paris (Bruno Rigutto) with her traditional studies in mathematics and physics.

She then continued her musical education at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles with Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden and Guy Van Waas, where she was awarded first prize in piano and chamber music. She became fascinated with the fortepiano during her studies via a master class given by Jos van Immerseel. She began to concentrate on the historical background and the evolution in the "construction" of the fortepiano, and for a number of years studied the specific characteristics and maintenance requirements (tuning, strings, etc) of the instrument completely on her own. She thus developed extensive expertise in historical keyboards as fortepiano specialist and as pianist.

As musician-researcher, she began her own collection of French historical keyboards, which has grown in the meantime to 5 instruments covering the time span 1842-1920. ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

“Les Amis du Clavecin (The Friends of the Harpsichord) is an association founded in 1991 by the Belgian harpsichordist Betty Bruylants. Its purpose is to foster people's knowledge and love of the harpsichord, an instrument which was extremely important in the history of western music for over three centuries.

The renewed discovery of Baroque music has restored the harpsichord to its rightful place among ancient instruments. In addition, the works that many 20th-century composers wrote for it prove that it is also a modern one, which offers all kinds of opportunities for contemporary music.

Concerts, festivals, lectures and master classes have enabled many performers and their audiences to get together and to share their passion in a pleasant and genial atmosphere. ..“

"He was born in São Paulo and started his music studies trough the piano in 1983. In 1994 he went to the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) where he earned his Bachelor degree in conducting and studied harpsichord with Edmundo Hora.

He participated in many Festivals in Brazil, studying Composition, Conducting, Piano, Baroque Violin, Organ and Harpsichord, as well as in the XIX Cursos Internacionais de Música da Casa de Mateus (Portugal). He has attended Master Classes with Olivier Baumont, Nicolau de Figueiredo, Rudi van Straten and Cristophe Rousset and courses on baroque music with Homero de Magalhães Filho and Manfred Kraemer. In 1999, he was awarded at the IX Rotary Competition of Instrumental Music for Youngsters in Campinas.

In Brazil, he was member of the Chamber Orchestra of the "Sociedade Musical Campinas" (violinist and assistant conductor), "Seicento" (specialized in 17th century music), "Camerata Novo Horizonte", "Jardim Musical", "La Bagatelle", "Lexis" and "Armonico Tributo" - Campinas Baroque Orchestra (dir. Edmundo Hora) - all early music ensembles. He played also with the ensembles "Vox Brasiliensis" (dir. Ricardo Kanji) and "Orquesta Barroca del Mercosul" (Uruguay - dir. Cristina Banegas), and as soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of the State University of São Paulo. He took part in the Orchestra of the "Académie Baroque Européenne" in 2002 (dir. Rinaldo Alessandrini) and 2005 (dir. William Christie).

Currently he works with the ensembles "Companhia de Música" (director) - Brazil, "LOTUS", "Giardino Musicale" and "COLLEGIUM MUSICUM Den Haag" (director) - Europe, and as guest teacher at the Royal Conservatoire - The Hague. Claudio also works as accompanist at the Early Music International Festival of Juiz de Fora. "

"Considered one of the best Brazilian harpsichord players, Rosana Lanzelotte has played in important halls throughout her country as well as in Europe, including recitals at the Wigmore Hall and St. Martin-in-the-fields (London), Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon) and Palazzo Barberini (Rome). Rosana has released four solo CDs, among which the first recording on the harpsichord of The Seven Last Words by Haydn. Her CD The Brazilian Harpsichord, totally devoted to Brazilian music of the XXth century, has been pointed out as one of the five best releases of the year. Her next project features unknown Portuguese works to be recorded on the XVIIIth century Calisto harpsichord owned by the National Music Museum in the US.

As a researcher, she devotes herself to the area of Music Information Retrieval, developing techniques for effective availability of musical archives through the Internet.

For ten years, she has been running one of the most remarkable musical series in Rio - “Music in the Churches” – which concerts take place all over the city, including its poorest regions and “favelas”. Some outstanding artists played in the series, such as Heinz Holliger, Christophe Rousset, Accademia Bizantina and Ensemble Zefiro.

Due to her achievements, she has been awarded with the “Golfinho de Ouro” prize by the Cultural Council of Rio de Janeiro. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

“I studied with Michael Jarvis in Hamilton, Ontario and with Arthur Haas at the Eastman School of Music and the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and I learned Baroque performance practice with renowned lutenist Paul O’Dette. In 2003, I received my doctoral degree from Stony Brook and was awarded the Samuel Baron Prize, given to an outstanding graduate. …”

"Boyd McDonald began his career as a pianist giving his Wigmore Hall debut in 1960 followed by a New York Debut in 1963 as winner of the Leschetizky Town Hall Debut Prize.
He toured North America, Europe and England as a member of the Beckett and McDonald Piano Duo. Since 1982 he has been an active fortepianist recording the Complete Works for Cello and Fortepiano by Beethoven with Paul Pulford. As an academic he taught composition at the University of Manitoba. He joined the Faculty of Music at Wilfrid Laurier University in 1976 where he currently teaches piano as Professor Emeritus.
As a composer McDonald studied with Murray Adaskin, three years with Nadia Boulanger o­n a Canada Council grant and summer schools with Darius Milhaud, John Cage and Stefan Wolpe. His works display a synthesis of virtuosity combined with a theatricality valued by performers whose concerts must be seen as well as heard!" ...

"Cynthia Hiebert has performed both traditional and contemporary harpsichord works in Canada, the United States and England. She studied with Colin Tilney and Arthur Haas, and as a recipient of the Gelber Fellowship, completed a doctorate in harpsichord performance at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. In addition to work as a soloist, she has collaborated with numerous ensembles including New York Baroque, North Shore Pro Musica, I Furiosi, Spiritus, Numus, the York Symphony Orchestra, the Penderecki String Quartet, the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra and the Nota Bene Period Orchestra." ...

"I began studying piano with my mother at age three on the Niagara Peninsula (Canada). I later studied violin with Artur Garami and keyboard with Eric Dowling. My childhood inspiration was a series of articles about Vladimir Horowitz in Etude Magazine.

By the age of sixteen I was an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto. I was introduced to the harpsichord and Fenton House by Thurston Dart in London England, to gamba making by Juliet Beamont of Cambridge, and to the baroque violin by Alice Harnoncourt.

For a variety of reasons, I took time out from a music career to raise five wonderful children: a minister, a teacher, a scientist, a guitar maker and a writer. When they were grown up, I cashed in my pension and returned to my music.

Originally, I planned to record all copyright-free works for the harpsichord in General MIDI format for free distribution on the Internet. If you enjoy the trip, who cares if you get there! But, something happened on the way - the trip got nasty.

"Kevin Komisaruk is Assistant Professor of organ and harpsichord at the University of Toronto Faculty of Music. He concertizes frequently throughout Europe and North America, and can be heard on network broadcasts of Radio France, SRC/CBC (Canada), and NPR (USA). Kevin Komisaruk records with Canada's leading ATMA record label. His 2001 disc of works by John Bull received several awards and citations including those from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Radio Canada, Belgium's Magazine d'orgue, and the Journal of Seventeenth-century Music. His 2005 recording of works by Samuel Scheidt on the meantone organ at Knox College Toronto has been critically acclaimed by SRC (Radio Canada) and European journals including Goldberg and Scherzo. " See website for more information. (ed.)

"Named “Performer of the Year” in 2004 by the Conseil québécois de la musique, harpsichordist and organist Luc Beauséjour has long been thrilling audiences with his expressive and brilliant performances. He has played in many countries and has regularly teamed up with eminent musicians such as sopranos Agnès Mellon, Donna Brown and Karina Gauvin, contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux, conductor and harpsichordist Hervé Niquet, violinist James Ehnes and trumpet player Paul Merkelo. For Analekta, Naxos and other labels, he has recorded some twenty CDs. Heard regularly on public radio, Luc Beauséjour was awarded this year’s Listeners’ Award of the Chaîne culturelle de Radio-Canada. In July 2004, Luc Beauséjour recorded Book I of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier (Naxos). " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

"The Moir Duo, Ronald and Ruth Moir, took their undergraduate education as pianists at the University of Manitoba. Grants from both the Canada Council as well as the Manitoba Arts Council allowed them to undertake 3 years of study in the UK. They studied with Joan Davies (a pioneer in the reintroduction of the historic fortepiano) who performed regularly at the Colt Collection and at the Hazelmere Festival organized by Carl Dolmetsch. Upon their return to Canada they began to tour as the Moir Fortepiano duo, and appeared throughout Ontario."

"They specialize in 18th century keyboard music and take great pleasure in performing on instruments identical to those used by both Mozart and Beethoven. To this goal they have focussed on developing a superb idiomic keyboard touch, a great variation of sonority, a refined awareness of stylistic nuances, a strong sense of ensemble, and a spontaneous musical personality. Concerts are fun without violating the integrity of the music."

"Paul Jenkins cultivates an eclectic musical career as a keyboardist and tenor. A longtime member of the Toronto Consort, he has appeared with many of Canada's leading early music groups, including Tafelmusik, Aradia, the Purcell and Bach Consorts, Opera Atelier and La Nef. Other collaborations include Apollo's Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, the Windsor and Toronto Symphony Orchestras, Opera in Concert, the Toronto Chamber Choir, the Esprit Orchestra, I Furiosi, Musica Divina, the Canadian Chamber Ensemble, and Toronto Masque Theatre, among others. He has recorded on the Dorian, Eclectra, CTAH, SRI, Naxos, Helicon and early-music.com labels.

Paul accompanies singers in Alexina Louie's television mini-opera Justifiable Homicide. He accompanied Russian counter tenor Vyatcheslav Kagan Paley in his New York debut recital and received critical praise for his recording of Thomas Svoboda's Duo Concerto for Trumpet and Organ with Charles Schlueter, Principal Trumpet of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Paul Jenkins is Organist of Blessed Sacrament Church in Toronto. " See website for more information. (ed.)

“ Maintaining an active concert schedule in North and South Americas, Europe, and the Far East, award-winning Canadian early keyboardist Sonia Lee has been praised by critics for her "very high standard of playing" and her ability "to dazzle an enraptured audience." She has been heard as soloist at festivals as well as regional and international conferences, including Boston Early Music Festival, Rome Festival, Early Keyboard Music Cycle of Buenos Aires, Early Music Colorado Fall Festival, Society for Historically Informed Performance Summer Concert Series, as well as the American Musical Instrument Society, Midwestern Historical Keyboard Society, Southeastern Historical Keyboard Society, Galpin Society, and International Committee of Musical Instrument Museums and Collections meetings. As a continuo player on both harpsichord and organ, she has collaborated with numerous soloists and ensembles, including Concerto Urbano, La Donna Musicale, the Rome Festival Orchestra and Opera, Dulces Exuviae, Sinfonia da Camera, Les Jeunes Virtuoses de Montréal, and Musicerend Gezelschap, of which she is a founding member. ..“

“Since his first clavichord performance in Fribourg (Switzerland) in 1972, Bernard Brauchli has entirely devoted himself to the performance, study and revival of early keyboard instruments. He has travelled extensively with his instruments in the United States, Canada and Europe, concertising, lecturing and introducing audiences to early keyboard instruments and historical performance practises.

Major appearances have included the Boston Early Music Festival, the Shrine to Music Concert Series (South Dakota), the Festivals of Santander and San Sebastian (Spain), the Festival do Algarve, (Portugal), the Salzburg Festival and the Internationale Musikwochen in Millstadt (Austria), the Festival of Valère (Switzerland), the Corso Internazionale di Musica Antica in Urbino and the Festival dei Saraceni in Pamparato (Italy). He has worked with national television and broadcasting stations in many countries including WGBH National Public Radio Network in Boston, France-Culture, Radio Nacional y Televisión Española, Radio Nacional y Televisión de Venezuela, Radio Difusão Portuguesa and Radio Suisse Romande. Bernard Brauchli has made six record albums and ten compact discs (for Titanic Records, EMI, Stradivarius, MAM) on historical instruments and copies.

Continual research has led Bernard Brauchli to publish numerous articles on both sides of the Atlantic and his book, The Clavichord was published by Cambridge University Press in 1998, for which he received the Nicholas Bessarabof Prize from the American Musical Instrument Society in 1999. In 1983 he was awarded the Julius Adams Stratton Prize for Cultural Achievement. ..“

"Trudelies Leonhardt, the sister of the harpsichordist Gustav Leonhardt, is of Dutch-Austrian parentage and comes from a family of musicians.

She studied with Johannes Röntgen, Anthon van der Horst and Nelly Wagenaar at the Amsterdam Conservatory where she was awarded the Soloist's Diploma with distinctions as well as the Elisabeth Everts prize. She also worked in Paris with Yves Nat and Marguerite Long.

Numerous orchestras have engaged Trudelies Leonhardt as soloist for their concerts, among which are the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zurich and the London Mozart Players.

She has long been interested in the Fortepianos of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and now entirely devotes her musical activities to their repertoire as a prolific recording artist. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

"Vital Julian Frey is considered the trailblazer of a new generation of harpsichordists. Technical mastery and a high degree of musicality are as much his trademarks as a convincing stage presence and a good rapport with his audience.

Vital Julian Frey trained at the academies of music in Freiburg im Breisgau and Munich, where he completed his Concert and Soloist diplomas under the tutelage of Robert Hill and Christine Schornsheim. Frey also received important artistic stimuli during tuition with Christophe Rousset, Gustav Leonhardt, Kenneth Gilbert, Christiane Jaccottet and Andreas Staier. ... " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

“Václav Luks (1970) fully developed his passion for early music while studying at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland, studying keyboard performance in the studios of
J.–A. Bötticher and J. B. Christensen. Among his activities there was the co-founding of the wind octet Amphion, and he played principal horn at the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.
After returning to the Czech Republic, in 2005 he transformed the ensemble Collegium 1704 into a full-time baroque orchestra, and he founded Collegium Vocale 1704. He has earned renown in the world of early music not only as an outstanding player of orchestral and chamber music on the harpsichord and French horn, but also foremost as an exceptionally conductor gifted with unerring intuition and a feel for the interpretation of the works of such old masters as J. D. Zelenka, J. S. Bach and G. F. Händel.“

"Viviana Sofronitski began her music studies in the family, following in the footsteps of her father, Vladimir Sofronitsky, who was a distinguished Russian pianist. After earning a DMA from the Moscow Conservatory she came to study Early Music in Oberlin, US. In 1990 she moved to Canada, where she performed with many musicians from the Toronto "Tafelmusik orchestra". In 1999 Viviana Sofronitzki received historical fortepiano and harpsichord performance degrees from the Royal Conservatory in Den Haag.

Viviana Sofronitski was awarded the First Prize at the "Bach Tage Berlin" competition, as well as main prizes at the "Musica Antiqua" competition in Brugge. Since then she has performed at many festivals, including "Printemps des Arts" in Nantes, Leipzig Bach Festival, "Flanders festival" and "Handelsbeurs" in Belgium, and with the "Oude Muziek Netwerk" (Utrecht Festival producer) in the Netherlands.

Viviana Sofronitski recorded with "Suoni e colori", "Pro Musica Camerata" and "Globe" labels. She gives masterclasses and has been widely broadcast in Europe and America. Her current projects include recording Schubert on early romantitic fortepiano. She released a complete recording of all Mozart's keyboard concertos with Musicae Antiquae Collegium Varsoviense orchestra on original 18th century instruments. " Visit website for more information. (ed.)

"Undoubtedly one of the most prominent harpsichord and forte piano performers in the world, Andreas Staier embarked upon a solo career in 1986 and, since then, his indisputable musical mastery has made its mark on the interpretation of baroque, classical and romantic repertoire.

Born in Göttingen, Andreas studied modern piano and harpsichord in Hannover and Amsterdam. For three years, he was the harpsichordist of Musica Antiqua Köln with whom he toured and recorded extensively.

As a soloist, Andreas Staier performs throughout Europe, the United States and Japan with orchestras such as Concerto Köln, Freiburger Barockorchester, the Akademie für alte Musik Berlin and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées Paris.

"With an almost endless sound variety on the different historical keyboard instruments she is familiar with, and an endless musical fantasy, harpsichordist and fortepianist Christine Schornsheim has been fascinating an enthusiastic audience for many years. She has been a guest of various concert series and festivals such as Klavierfestival Ruhr, Schwetzinger Festspiele, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Mostly Mozart New York, Europäisches Musikfest Stuttgart, Konzerthaus Berlin, Tage Alter Musik in Herne, Klavierfestival Ruhr and international Bach Festivals. Among her regular musical partners are Andreas Staier – with whom she performs at two harpsichords, two fortepianos or with four hands -, gamba player Hille Perl, cellist Kristin von der Goltz and traverso player Michael Schmidt-Castorff. ...

Schornsheim received high critical acclaim for her recording of Mozart works with Andreas Staier on a special Andreas Stein instrument that combines harpsichord and fortepiano (Harmonia Mundi France). 2009 saw the Capriccio/WDR release of the complete keyboard concertos by Joseph Haydn on historic instruments (harpsichord, fortepiano and organ), together with the Düsseldorfer Hofmusik – an extension of the recording of Haydn’s keyboard solo works. In the same year, a joint project with Hille Perl was realized: Sony released their recording of Bach’s organ sonatas, arranged for viola da gamba and harpsichord. In 2012, Oehms published their recording of Leopold Mozart’s sonatas and chamber music. Her most recent CD includes Lieder of Mozart’s time (tenor: Markus Schäfer, Crystal Classics). Upcoming CD releases comprise compositions by J.A.P. Schulz and C.P.E. Bach.

Since 2002, Schornsheim has held a professorship for harpsichord at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich.

"The Deutsche Clavichord Societaet (DCS, German Clavichord Society), a registered non-profit society, was founded in 1993.

The DCS is a focus for every aspect of the clavichord and its music, especially for the revival of clavichord playing and its tradition. Further activities include lectures, publications, the support of research studies, archive of clavichords.

Its membership includes professional players, amateurs, makers of clavichords, restorers, musicologists and people who simply like the delicate sound of the clavichord.

The DCS holds clavichord days (Clavichordtage) which include concerts, courses, workshops on clavichord maintenance and tuning, exhibitions of instruments, lectures... "